Chapter 51

One afternoon passed quickly.

【2】 On the way back, nothing like yesterday happened.

【3】 If we could keep this going, it would be a good thing.

【4】 However, Jiang Cheng knew deep down that this was bought with money.

【5】 If the membership expires and he doesn't renew, I believe those surnamed Chiang will soon come back.

【6】 Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng quickened his pace, arriving home about five minutes earlier than usual.

【7】 The old man was still waiting at the door; seeing Jiang Cheng return, he smiled.

【8】 Jiang Cheng pushed the bike inside and said urgently, "Grandma, I need to go out again, about half an hour."

【9】 "Going out again so late?"

【10】 The old man's smile froze.

【11】 "Grandma, you know Lu Zicheng, right?"

【12】 "Little Cheng? What's wrong with him?"

【13】 "A few days ago he was robbed of a lot of money. Learning I'm a member of the Martial Arts Hall, he asked me to escort him home these few days; if we run into thugs, showing my membership card will keep them off. I didn't want to agree at first, but he kept begging, so I agreed to escort him for a few days."

【14】 "Oh, poor kid."

【15】 The old man's face showed reluctance.

【16】 "Where is he now?"

【17】 "Still on the street, waiting for me to go back."

【18】 "Then hurry back; wait a bit longer, it'll get really dark." The old man urged.

【19】 "Okay, I'm going now."

【20】 Jiang Cheng hurried out.

【21】 "Be safe, come back early."

【22】 "Got it."

【23】 Jiang Cheng trotted away.

【24】 He silently apologized.

【25】 He had deceived the old man.

【26】 But to run into those guys, now is the best chance.

【27】 In the morning, or after it gets completely dark at night, you won't meet them.

【28】 Walking through the alleys, every household had doors and windows shut tight; aside from late‑returners and ill‑intentioned thugs, hardly anyone would be out at this time.

【29】 Jiang Cheng wandered aimlessly, searching.

【30】 Funny enough, normally he tries to avoid those thugs yet keeps bumping into them; today he came specially to look for them, searched most of the day, yet didn't see a single one.

【31】 Occasionally he'd run into one or two people, but they were on high alert and detoured.

【32】 He couldn't tell whether they were passersby or thugs, and it wasn't good to chase after them.

【33】 After searching for over ten minutes, the surroundings fell completely silent—not a person, not even a shadow.

【34】 "Did I come out too late?"

【35】 Jiang Cheng thought to himself.

【36】 The thugs' most active time coincides exactly with when street vendors pack up and head home in the evening.

【37】 After everyone goes home, washes up and rests, they also disperse—after all, there's nothing to rob, so why not rest?

【38】 "Maybe I could finish work half an hour earlier tomorrow? But then I'd lose fifty or sixty."

【39】 Jiang Cheng hesitated, unconsciously already at his doorstep.

【40】 Candlelight glowed inside the house.

【41】 "Grandma, I'm back."

【42】 Jiang Cheng shouted and stepped through the door.

【43】 Hearing him, the old man let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Nothing happened, right?"

【44】 "Nothing, I met a few thugs on the road; seeing my membership card, they wisely left."

【45】 Jiang Cheng smiled, "Just keeping this up isn't a solution; I'll escort him a few more days at most, then stop."

【46】 The old man nodded helplessly.

【47】 "Yeah, we can't keep having Jiang Cheng escort him forever."

【48】 "Besides, we paid a lot for this Martial Arts Hall membership, and we still owe Chen Sao three thousand."

【49】 "Little Cheng, hurry up and eat." "Okay."

【50】 After dinner, Jiang Cheng as usual stood for a while practicing stance training, then practiced double staff.

【51】 Two or three hours passed, drowsiness welled up.

【52】 Jiang Cheng glanced at the panel.

【53】 After practicing another two hours or so, stance training will reach entry level.

【54】 Progress on soft skill lags far behind, mainly because it's practiced less diligently than stance training.

【55】 To reach mastery level with double staff, following a routine of two hours a day, it will take at least two weeks, since muscle memory from a single short staff no longer gives much improvement.

【56】 Jiang Cheng thought of someone.

【57】 That thick‑eyed, taciturn senior brother.

【58】 If I spar with him on staff technique, I shouldn't need two weeks for double staff to reach mastery level.

【59】 The next day.

【60】 After breakfast, Jiang Cheng put on the Martial Arts Hall training uniform and set off for the Martial Arts Hall.

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Now after all lines, output ===TITLE=== and translation of chapter title: search -> "Search". Could also be "Searching". The title is just the single character meaning "search". We'll translate as "Search".

Then

On the way back, nothing like what happened yesterday occurred.

If it could stay like this forever, that would actually be a good thing.

Jiang Cheng appears.

Those people with the surname Chiang, also Jiang Cheng.

Thinking of this, Jiang Cheng quickened his steps and arrived home about five minutes earlier than usual.

The Old Man still waited at the doorway, and upon seeing Jiang Cheng return, a smile appeared on his face.

Jiang Cheng pushed the car into the house and said hastily, "Grandma, I still need to go out for about half an hour."

Old man.

Old man.

Jiang Cheng, Grandma, Lu Zicheng.

Grandma, Lu Zicheng.

"He was robbed of a lot of money two days ago, and after learning that I'm a Martial Arts Hall member, he wants me to escort him back for the next few days. If he runs into thugs, showing my Membership Card will prevent him from being robbed. At first I didn't want to agree, but he kept pleading, so I finally consented to escort him for a few days."

"I see, the poor kid."

Old man.

Old man, Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng.

"Then you hurry back, wait a little longer; it's really getting dark," the Old Man urged.

Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng.

"Take care, come back early."

Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng.

But to run into those people, now is the best chance.

In the morning, or after the sky is completely dark, I still won't meet them.

Walking through the alley, the houses on both sides had shut their doors and windows; apart from those returning late and ill‑intented thugs, almost no one would be on the road at this hour.

Jiang Cheng.

Strangely enough, he usually tries to avoid those thugs, yet he keeps running into them several times. Today he came specifically to look for them, searched for most of the day, but didn't encounter a single one.

Occasionally he meets one or two people, but they're also very cautious and walk away.

He isn't sure whether the other party is a passerby or a thug, and it's not easy to chase them.

After searching like this for over ten minutes, the surroundings had become completely quiet; there wasn't a single human silhouette, let alone a ghostly one.

"Was I out too late?"

Jiang Cheng.

The thugs are most active precisely at dusk, when the street vendors are packing up and heading home.

After everyone gets home and washes up and rests, they also go back individually; after all, with no robbery targets, there's no point in staying out.

"Maybe tomorrow we could finish half an hour earlier? But that would mean earning fifty or sixty less."

Jiang Cheng hesitated, and before he knew it, he had already reached his doorstep.

none.

Jiang Cheng, Grandma.

Jiang Cheng shouted a cry and walked into the house.

The Old Man, hearing that, immediately let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Nothing happened, right?"

"Nothing, I ran into a few thugs on the road, and after they saw the Membership Card I flashed, they all decently left."

Jiang Cheng laughed, "Just keeping it like this isn't a solution; at most I'll escort him a few more days, then I'll stop."

Old man.

Yeah, we can't have Jiang Cheng escorting forever, right?

Our family also spent a lot to buy the Martial Arts Hall membership, and we still owe Chen Sao three thousand for it.

Xiao Cheng, Jiang Cheng.

After dinner, Jiang Cheng, as usual, stood on the stance for a while and practiced Double Staff.

After two or three hours, drowsiness struck.

Jiang Cheng, Panel.

Practice another two plus hours, and the stance skill will reach Entry.

The progress of Soft Skill is far worse, mainly because it's not practiced as diligently as the stance.

To reach Mastery Level with Double Staff, training two hours a day requires at least two weeks, because the memory of a single Short Staff no longer yields much improvement.

Jiang Cheng thought of a person.

That thick‑eyebrowed, not‑much‑talking senior brother Zeng.

If I spar with him on staff methods, it should take less than two weeks for Double Staff to reach Mastery Level.

none.

Jiang Cheng finished breakfast, put on the martial arts hall's training uniform, and set off for the martial arts hall.

While walking on the road, he deliberately observed the people around him, hoping to find Liu Yang's three guys, or else the people who had shown up a few days earlier.

Nevertheless, he had not encountered them all along the way.

Jiang Cheng didn't mind too much, after all it was just a matter of luck; besides, those people surely lived nearby, and given enough chances he would eventually meet them.

After a morning's training, the one who came to the second floor to instruct everyone today was that Senior Brother Xiao.

Jiang Cheng felt no particular fondness for him, so he naturally couldn't be bothered to ask him for advice.

The latter, naturally, also didn't mind, chatting and laughing with several Senior Members.

During that time, Zhao Xiangyu came by once and checked Jiang Cheng's basic skills.

As noon approached, Jiang Cheng returned home, changed into everyday clothes, and pushed his cart to the street to sell roasted sweet potatoes.

Time flew by.

Again it was evening, the sky grew dim.

Jiang Cheng let out a sigh, still unable to make up his mind, and packed up his stall early to go look for those people.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to him.

He could search while pushing the tricycle, instead of pushing the cart back and then going out to search again.

It would be best to find those three guys; if not, he would look for familiar faces, just needing to know where the three of them lived.

As for Grandma's side, he had already given notice; if he returned late a while later, she would know the reason and wouldn't worry too much.

Thus, after buying the raw sweet potatoes, Jiang Cheng didn't rush back but instead pushed his cart and began searching around.

This turn actually let him encounter a situation.

In the alley on the left, three petty thugs blocked a middle-aged man, shouting that he should hand over the money.

The middle-aged man kept pleading, saying that in two days it would be the day to pay the stall fee to the Wild Wolf Gang; if he gave them the money, he wouldn't be able to pay the stall fee.

The three naturally didn't believe him, or, even if they did, what would it matter?

Having caught their prey, they wouldn't rest until they took a bite of flesh.

"Listen, I don't have time to waste with you," the leader pulled out a spring knife, "Two hundred bucks—if you don't pay, I'll slash you a few times."

The middle-aged man looked at the gleaming blade and shrank his neck.

"Big brother, big brother."

Just as the leader was about to continue threatening with two more sentences, his sidekick tugged at his arm.

Guo Ye turned around, his face displeased.

Can't you see I'm busy with important work?

"No, big brother, look over there."

The sidekick, face full of fright, pointed to a spot not far away.

Another person also wore a look of panic, like a mouse seeing a cat.

Guo Ye looked over in puzzlement, his eyes widening sharply, his whole body as if hit by an immobilization technique, frozen in place.

A phrase kept echoing in his mind.

How could it be him?

(End of chapter)